“Are you okay?” asked Ray.  “That looked intense.”

Duncan took over their body and shook its head, crystal shards glittering and shifting.  “We just threatened to annihilate the United States.”

“Are they holding your family hostage again?” asked Ray.  “You’d think they’d know better by now.”

Duncan chuckled weakly, and coughed up a few shards of crystal.  “You’d think.  Damn, the Moon is setting.  This is going to hurt.”  More shards tinkled to the floor.

“Do you need... crap, I don’t know, a bucket?”  Ray gestured to Beth, who had already figured out that she could use a headband on her new catgirl body, and was currently in her usual bunnygirl body.  She ducked behind the bar and returned with a large tub.

Duncan stepped into it curiously, still shedding parts.  Beth came back a moment later with a broom and dustpan, and used those to sweep up the crystals on the floor, and dumped them into the tub.

“You’re not going to try to use me to ice drinks, are you?” asked Duncan.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” replied Ray.  “Your shards are sharp as hell, they’d ruin the tins.”

Duncan chuckled gravely, as more of his crystals shed.  “Getting harder to stay coherent.”

“Then don’t fight it.”

The broken statue in the tub collapsed, leaving nothing but shards behind.  “Ow.”

“You okay?” asked Ray.

“Do I look okay?” grated Duncan.  A scraping sort of sigh followed as the crystals stirred slightly and settled.  “This sucks.”

“Are ye still alive?” asked Colin.

“For loose definitions of alive.”

“So what are you whining about?”

Ray shot Colin a dark look, but the doctor just shrugged.  “She needs to face this.  Moping won’t help.”

“Moping?” shouted Duncan.  “I am not...”  The shuffling sigh returned, and the voice from the crystal shifted to a higher pitch.  “Okay, maybe we are moping a little.  Haven’t we earned some downtime after saving the world?”

“And I thank you for it,” replied Colin.  “But lying there in a heap is going to turn you inward.  Can’t you use one of the bodies here?”

The crystals went silent.  A soft shuffling from the headband-body storage heralded their emergence as a four-armed naga.  “Forgot this was here,” they said, blushing slightly.

Kelly was the first to dash up to Donna, and gave her a big hug.  “Thanks for saving us.”

The others soon crowded around, burying Donna in a fluffy cuddlepile.  Colin watched with a smile on his face.  “There you go.  Pet therapy.”

Ray snickered.  “I don’t think these are the kinds of pets they had in mind.”

“I’m not going to argue with results.  She looks happier.  Almost blissed out.”

Ray sighed and nodded.  “Yeah.  Probably helps to let go of the whole powers of a goddess thing.  I suspect we’re in for more trouble when the Moon rises again.”

“Don’t go borrowing trouble.  The worst of the crisis has passed.”

Ray’s phone rang.  He frowned at it, then answered.  “Agent Cooper.  What can I do for you?”

“Can I speak to Mr. Faulkner?”

“They’re in Donna mode and getting some much needed fuzz therapy.  Can it wait?”

“It concerns their family.”

Ray winced.  “Fine.”  He held the phone out to the cuddle pile.  “Call for you, Donna.”

Donna wriggled her way free of the pile and accepted the phone.  “Hello?”

“Are you Faulkner?” asked Agent Cooper on the other end of the line.

“Part of them, anyway.  Oh, I think I remember you.  Sorry, our mind’s a mess.”

Cooper chuckled ruefully.  “I can’t even imagine after this night.  You’ve been through a lot.”

“Um... could you maybe put together an outline of it all?  We can’t get the memories to organize.  It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces missing.  We can’t even get started because we don’t know even roughly what it should look like.”

“I’ll send you my write up once I’m done with it.  More importantly, your family is now free.  The protective detail’s orders are quite clear that they are not to impede them from going wherever they want.  However... given the current security situation, they’ve been strongly encouraged to stay where they are, and seem willing to do so, at least for now.”

Donna sighed with relief.  “I’m glad to hear that.  How pissed is the President?”

“You made her cry.  I think she’s terrified.”

“Good.”

“Some people react badly to fear.  Right now, her reaction has been to freeze up.  You’ve presented her with an impossible problem.  There’s no way to safely transport your family home.  The commercial airports are a mob scene.”

“What about a military jet?” asked Donna.

“Yeah, that’s a problem.  The warfare inside the government was bad, and the military got the worst of it.  Most of the sleeper agents are dealt with, but...  It’s a mess, and the upshot is we have no clue how to do this safely.  Even the risk of a simple mechanical failure becomes intolerable against the standard you set.”

“You don’t think we’d do... that... if it was just an accident.  Do you?”

“I don’t, no.  I think you’ve put the fear of God in our acting president.”

“Ah.  Tell her we will arrange for their transportation.  The craft will depart from Victoria International and will follow flight rules.  It is not to be interfered with in any way.  Any attempt to intercept or block it will result in the loss of whatever you put in its way.  Are we clear?”

“Yes’m.  I don’t think that’ll be a problem.  And thank you.  With that out of the way, would you like to speak to your wife?”

Donna hesitated.  “Speak to Sidney?  I... we... we should.  How is she?”

“Worried, mostly.  Here she is.”

“Hey hon.  Are you okay?” asked a voice at once familiar and strange.

Donna answered, “Not really.”

“Oh, hey Donna.  Can I speak to Duncan please?”

“Of course.”  Their voice shifted to a slightly lower pitch.  “Hey yourself.  How are you holding up?”

“Did you really threaten the entire United States?” asked Sidney.

“In our defence, the President had just threatened to harm you to get us to cooperate.”

“And you jumped immediately to ‘I will kill everyone’?”

Duncan winced at the accusation in Sidney’s voice.  “It wasn’t a threat.”

“What was it?”

“A warning.  We were badly damaged in the fight.  Worse, we had to leave our soul with Gwen, and can’t get back to it.  She’s trapped under miles of rock.”

“Oh no!  Is she okay?”

“She is unhurt, and can communicate.  She could probably use a headband body, too, come to think of it.”

Another body slid out of the cabinet and waved to Duncan.  “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this either,” she mouthed, then gestured for him to go back to the call.

“And she just has,” added Duncan.  “She’ll be okay, we’ll figure out how to get her out from underground next month.”

“Good!  So... can we get back to this ‘destroy everyone’ thing?  I’m having trouble reconciling that with the man I married.”

“You never saw me truly angry.  I’ve had it under control for a very long time.  Now... we are shattered, and... the rage we felt at the threat would have been impossible to contain if we had been face to face and in our power.  The only reason the president is alive is because the Moon had set where she was.”

“Duncan!”

“We are sorry, love.  The war broke us, changed us.  We are a monster, and no stranger to death.  It is hard to see them as...  We should go.”

“Don’t.  Not yet.  I need to hear your voice, to convince myself there’s still something left of the man I married.  Is there?”

“We don’t know.  The demons’ attacks were as much psychic as physical.  Our mind broke, and we lost so much.  I don’t...”  Duncan choked on the words for a moment.  “I don’t remember any of you.  Just shattered fragments that don’t... don’t connect.  Just pain, and rage, and slaughter.  Donna killed a bunch of soldiers that were trying to stop us getting into the US.  We didn’t have to, but they were shooting at us and we sent their weapons back at them.”

“Couldn’t you have just flown over them?”

“Yes.  But we were angry.  Terrifyingly so.”

“You’re making this sound awfully scary.  Are you... safe to be around?”

“For you, yes.  For anyone that threatens you... no.  Very much no.  Fuck.  Even a raised voice might provoke a lethal response.  We can’t go anywhere with you.  Probably shouldn’t be around you or the kids while the Moon is up.  God damn it, we can’t get you home until after Moonrise tonight, and even though I can’t remember you, I miss you desperately.”

Sidney let out the breath she’d been holding.   “You are still in there, somewhere.  Well, I promised in sickness and in health.  You do remember that, at least?”

Duncan let the fragments coalesce around the phrase.  “Little bit.  Fragments, but now that they have something to latch on to, more than before.”

“Your memory always was terrible.  We’ll go through the wedding album, and all our pictures.  It’ll come back.”

“Thank you.”

“See you tonight.”

Duncan slumped when the call ended, and Gwen was there to pick them up.  “Hey.  We’ll all get through this, okay?  Do you need Arwen?”

“Maybe... maybe we could go see Peter?  Would he still be at the chapel, Colin?”

“More likely he’s getting ready for the Remembrance Day service.”

Duncan blinked.  “Is that today?  Where’s the nearest one, we should go.”

“You told your wife you are in no condition to be out among people.  We can have our own little ceremony here.”

Duncan smiled relievedly.  “That sounds like a much better idea.”

“You go back to the cuddlepile,” suggested Ray, shooing Duncan and Gwen back toward the others.  “I’ll get things set up here.”

Ray and Colin put their heads together, and sketched out the details.  Once they were ready, they turned to look at the girls.  “Is our guest of honor ready?”

“I think she’s asleep,” said Kelly.

Duncan was draped loosely over the others, but perked up when Ray softly called their name.  “Hey, I’m awake.  Just... been a night, y’know?”

“That it has,” agreed Ray with a sage nod.  “That it has.  But it’s a new day, now.  The eleventh day, of the eleventh month.”

“And the year ends in eleven,” added Duncan.  “Nice.  Did we actually win the demon war on Remembrance Day?”

Ray nodded.  “The big boom was well after midnight.  All right, all of you off the stage and into the audience.  Colin?”

Colin stood up on the stage as the other settled, and gave an improvised but moving speech about remembering the dead, but living for the living.  How even amidst death and chaos, saving a life - any life - was a blessing.  “Ye saved many this night, Donna.  Don’t forget that among the ashes.”

Donna smiled at him and nodded.  “Thank you.  Working with you has been a gift.  We look forward to the day when we can safely do so again.”

Colin looked startled at the comment.  “I... of course.  Whenever you can.”

Ray took the stage next, and spoke briefly about bravery and sacrifice, then read “In Flanders Fields”.

Colin took the stage again to say a brief prayer for peace.  He glanced at his watch when he was done.  “We have a little time before the hour if someone else would like to say something.”

Kelly raised her hand, and Colin gave the stage up to his daughter.  She had her phone out and glanced down at it.  “I would like to read some excerpts from ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon.”

“Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.”

Many present echoed the last line softly.  Duncan did not, cheeks wet with tears.

Kelly stopped, and looked alarmed.  “Are you okay?”

Duncan shook their head.  “Sorry.  It just hit home.  I will not grow old, while all around me...”

Gwen pulled Duncan into a gentle embrace.  “Not all.”

Duncan sniffed and nodded.  “Thank you.  Sorry, Kelly, please continue.”

Kelly looked uncertain.  “There’s more of that.”

“Please.”

She nodded, and carried on.

“But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

“As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.”

Everyone applauded softly, and Kelly bowed to Duncan then to her father, who was beaming at her with tearful pride.

“A minute of silence, please,” said Ray.  “To consider the sacrifices made not just this night, but wherever war’s desolation threatened all we love.”

Duncan stood at attention, all four arms still at their sides.  They coiled their lower body tight to approximate the pose they recalled.  Fragments of other similar ceremonies shuffled in their mind.  What they formed was not cohesive or whole, but the solemness and determination came through in the composition.

As the minute ended, Duncan startled.  “What was that?”

“What was what?” asked Ray.

“I heard an explosion outside.  Distant, but...”  Duncan rushed to the door, heedless of how in the past it would have been an insuperable barrier in any form but a human one.  In the dawn of this new day, magic censorship no longer tried to stop them.  The others crowded behind Duncan, marvelling that they could emerge into the glowing light of day in their obviously magic-produced bodies.

Another sharp report echoed through the air.  “Downtown,” said Duncan after a moment. “It’s coming from...  Oh.  Right.  The twenty-one gun salute.  We always liked that bit.”

Ray chuckled softly.  “Let’s stay out here and enjoy the sun, and listen.  Today is a good day.”

Duncan smiled.  “We certainly hope so.”